Down with Dogs

by David Free

A few weeks back I found myself faced with a revolting question of modern etiquette. I was staying as a guest in somebody else’s house, at a time when my hosts happened to be looking after a third party’s dog. My hosts were out, leaving me in sole charge of the dog. The dog seized the opportunity to defecate, horrifyingly, on the key stretch of floor between the couch and the big-screen TV. Read more

Underbelly: A Dissenting Note

- David Free

When you don’t like a TV show, you tend not to watch very much of it. This makes it hard to defend your dislike of it forensically, with chapter-and-verse reference to the text. All you can really say is that the thing struck you, at first glace, and at as many subsequent glances as you could stand to give it, as shit. Read more

Love His Way - Louis Nowra on thin ice

- Nick Terrell

At about the same time that reviews were starting to come out for his novel Ice, Louis Nowra wrote an article for The Weekend Australian on Love as a literary theme. The piece exhibited a boorishness and intellectual laziness which left me feeling both flummoxed and annoyed. The following is an attempt to reason through my strong dislike for this piece of writing and to pin down its dubious motivations. Read more

Scenes from a Failed Apocalypse

The last trumpet sounded again last week. It was blown by a man no-one could name or place. He has been described alternatively as rodent-like or skeletal in appearance. Read more